I grew up in the 80s and 90s, so cassettes were a large part of my early musical life. The first album I ever bought was on cassette (Michael Jackson’s Thriller, natch). I had a cassette player hooked up next to my bed, and I listened to cassettes every night.
Even though I loved the cassettes that I owned, I was very glad to see cassettes go away as CDs became the dominant format in the 90s. Cassettes seemed to exist only to provide portability where it didn’t exist previously.
Cassettes did not provide better sound reproduction than vinyl as most albums were mixed for vinyl even during the 80s. Cassettes also had flaws that were not present in other musical formats. For example, the tape could get flipped or tangled or stretched or cut.
Moreover, CDs ushered in better sound quality and easier storage. CDs did bring along their own issues, but those have mostly been solved by the digital music era that we are in today.
My stance is this: Cassettes are not a format that should have any kind of romanticism attached to it. It was simply there for utilitarian functions. And, it performed those functions well, for the most part. It allowed us to take our music in our cars and even on our walks. But the cassette era has passed and better formats have risen to take its place.
So, imagine my surprise (and horror!) when I read that cassettes are making a comeback. We are at a point in time when we can carry thousands of songs in our pocket, and some people are trying to bring cassettes back? Unacceptable!
These cassette-loving hipsters must be stopped. They need to know that cassettes are an inferior music format that should not be brought back. Help me spread this message!
Note that it is not necessary to remind me of my vinyl collection. Completely irrelevant.